Foley named Most Courageous' for heroics at Boston Marathon

Philadelphia Sports Writers Association honoree Jack Foley participates in a Q&A with reporters before Monday’s banquet. Foley is an athletic trainer at Lehigh University who was on hand at the Boston Marathon and rushed in to attend to those wounded in the bombing. (Times Staff/ROBERT J. GURECKI)

Medical workers aid injured people following an explosion at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. Foley was one of many who came to the victims’ aid. (Associated Press)

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Like so many others at the Boston Marathon last April 15, all Jack Foley knew was that, one way or another, he would find his way to the finish line. He just never expected to cross it, at least not from the tragic side.

He was a trainer, a volunteer, a life-long sports fan and healer, there, perhaps, to soothe a pulled muscle, to ice a sore ankle, to reverse a heat stroke. That’s all.

Then …

“There were people screaming in horror at what they viewing,” Foley said. “They were about fear. They were about looking for help.”

Then the director of sports medicine at Lehigh University would be required to demonstrate courage — courage validated Monday at the 110th Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Dinner, where he was named as the 2014 Most Courageous Athlete.

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Foley had been stationed at that finish line, roughly 30 yards from where the first of two bombs exploded in an attack that would kill three and injure more than 250. When he heard the first bomb, he reacted, joining fellow first-responders in breaking down a fence in order to provide assistance.

A dozen seconds later, there was another blast. By then, the 61-year-old Bethlehem resident was in the only race that day that would matter.

“The most important thing for me at that moment was hearing, ‘Medical, medical, need you now,’” he said. “I was looking over to Boston’s Finest, where a police officer was very emphatically asking me to come over. And I ran to the fence. At the fence, I tried to kick it in, not realizing it was connected to the scaffolds. At the same time, we were very much aware from that second blast that the sounds were increasing and getting violent.”

The spectators would be stunned by catastrophe. Yet they would experience heroism, too. Foley was one of more than five dozen who would help transport 97 victims to hospitals, all within a reported 22 minutes. As such, he would accept the award Monday at the Crowne Plaza on behalf of all who had carried out one of the most courageous acts in American sports history.

“I am honored and humbled,” Foley said. “And it is a great way to keep the memory of those less fortunate and those fallen among our thoughts and prayers.

“It is obvious this award isn’t about me being out there. It is about the hundreds of people who ran toward — not away — from the blast. It also represents thousands of first-responders throughout this country, many of whom do it every day of their lives. They are the real heroes. I am just humbled to offer a few words of gratitude to them for that.”

The gratitude was real, the heroism thick, Foley just one of a successful team that saved so many lives. Yet there he was, so close to the blasts, proving to be what he’d always strived to ensure that so many athletes were: prepared.

“I think it’s in your fabric of who you are as an athletic trainer,” he said. “We are typically the first people to respond, whether it is because of an injury or another issue. It could be someone in a gym or a ballgame. It could be a life-threatening situation, like a heart attack. So we are trained for those conditions.”

That would include even the most gruesome.

“There was a lot of blood — a lot of blood — on the pavement,” he said. “I can tell you that the sounds were unreal as people were trying to flee the area and they were slipping on blood. And for me, I remember the fear that was going on and the panic and the chaos when we couldn’t get in initially, until we kind of knocked the fence down with people helping us, police officers, athletic trainers and spectators.”

The fence was toppled, the injured transported to nine different emergency rooms, the site cleaned and honored and readied for decades of more Boston Marathons.

The memories, though, will never stop running.

“What was so real with me,” Foley said, “were the sounds and the smell.”

Born in Germantown and raised in Flourtown, Foley has been a trainer for 35 years, positioning himself at finish lines from the Penn Relays to two Olympic Games, never before required to cross one, hoping never to be called to so cross one again.

“People ask, ‘Is there something that you can take from this?’” Foley said. “Well, it is that life can change in an instant. The question you ask is, ‘How would you react?’ That will define you to a large part from that point on.”

So, will he race back to Boston again this spring?

“Absolutely,” he said.

That will be him, right there at the finish line, right there with all of the winners, defined by his display of courage.